AN- Sorry its taken me a while to update, and thank you to Person95, dusk3ttex01, Amy-Katherine914 and alicecullen234 for your reviews, I really appreciated it :) Hope you like this chapter! The lyrics at the end are from an Editors song 'Bones'; its pretty dang awesome XD

I coughed and coughed, trying to rid my lungs of the seawater that lined their depths, and I guess I must have gone a little too far, because before I knew it, I was throwing up.

Over Fang's shoes.

Fabulous.

He was nice about it though, holding my hair back until I had finished, and politely excused himself to wash off his shoes in the sea as I cleaned myself up. I began to apologise (I know what you're thinking: Max actually apologised? I threw up on his shoes, people!) but he wasn't having any of it, so instead I asked if the others had gone to the beach as I'd told them to. They had, and we were about to leave to meet them when Fang turned around and looked at me, and I was more than slightly worried when his usually impassive face was filled with alarm.

"What?"I demanded graciously. He couldn't bring himself to speak, and I soon realised why when he gestured for me to look behind me. More Erasers?

No. Just a trail of blood, staining the golden sand around me. I looked down at myself, and, I am embarrassed to report, I fainted. Again.

Fang watched as Max fell slowly to the floor. What had looked like mere scratches earlier he could now were deep wounds where the Erasers had swiped viciously in their anger. He hadn't noticed these before, although, to be fair, he had been slightly more concerned with making sure she was actually alive. You know, the little things.

The obvious thing would be to find the others; they couldn't stay spilt up for long, so he carefully lifted her from where she was laid, her coffee coloured hair spread out around her, and took off awkwardly, headed for the beach and the Flock.

After around five minutes' surprisingly quick flying he could see them sat anxiously on the beach. Iggy had already set up a small camp-fire and Angel and Nudge were happily roasting the (probably out of date) sweets they had found in their bags, and the boys were almost certainly discussing explosives. He did try not to make our approach too rough for Max, as the slightest jolt could make her injuries worse than they already were, but inconspicuous it was not.

For a start, Angel had heard them as they had gotten nearer, bombarding Fang's brain with question after question. Also (he realised with a lurch in his stomach) they had left a crimson trail of blood behind them for the past few miles, although he had managed to stop some of it from escaping by wrapping her knee in his shirt. Still, apart from the whole shirtless flying mutant carrying similarly endowed mutant dripping blood here there and everywhere, it could have gone a lot worse.

They landed, and Fang cautiously placed Max on the sand. Iggy soon ran his delicate fingers over her body, assessing her injuries.

"We need to find her a hospital or something," he announced a couple of minutes later in a low voice. She stirred as he said this, and Fang's hand instantly flew to her face, caressing the newly formed scars absent-mindedly as the others gave each other knowing looks behind his back. Well, apart from Iggy, although a wicked grin adorned his pale face.

Her eyes flickered open, and although she looked mildly alarmed to find Fang as close to her as he was, she smiled briefly.

"What about..." she paused to catch her breath several times, "Dr Martinez and...Ella. You know," she paused again, making Fang's heart ache with worry, "before we got to Lake Mead, the girl I saw..."

"I know where you mean," Fang said, and she shot him a grateful look as she caught her breath again. She was exhausted, and so were the others, but they needed to get help as soon as possible. It had to be at least a three hour flight to her house from where they were, so Fang and Iggy offered to fly on with Max and find the younger kids somewhere safe to stay, until Angel reminded them how bad it had been the last time they split up.

They stacked their fists together before they took off, a sign of support. After four hours of slow flying, they finally reached the Martinez house, still safely surrounded by tall trees. Nudge walked towards the cream door and knocked nervously. It opened equally as nervously; after all, it was pretty late at night, to reveal Valencia Martinez's tired face. Her eyes focused on the children in front of her, and her mouth nearly fell into an attractive 'O' shape as she spotted Max cradled in Fang's strong arms.

"Oh, Max."

In the end, all you can hope for

Is the love you felt to equal the pain you've gone through